The Wanderer

Chapter 16--Part 1

            The three men sat around a blazing campfire, sure that their camp was safe from discovery because they had hidden it so well.  As the flames danced, the light illuminated each of the men’s faces in turn.  The orange flames revealed crazed eyes rimmed by shaggy, dark brown hair that stuck out in all directions.  The grease clung to the locks, making it stick out in random directions and he had a long beard that hang down in a few tiny braids.  The mass of unruly hair framing his face gave him the look of a hungry lion, amplifying his wild appearance.  He sat by himself carving a piece of wood he had found in the forest, but his efforts were terrible at best since his eyes constantly darted around in a paranoid fashion.

            The flames danced and shifted, revealing the second man to be a burly, muscular man standing amongst the horses, brushing down their ebony coats.  As his arm moved back and forth, the taut fabric across his back rippled as his overabundance of muscles worked.  His eyes were set in a determined fashion and his tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth as he focused on the task at hand.  His pure-blonde hair had long since morphed into a dirty-blonde from the days of living in camp.  His greasy locks brushed the tops of his ears as his went about his work, oblivious to everything else.

            The light of the fire reached the other man last, as he purposely walked among the shadows.  It illuminated his back first, lighting up his relatively clean, but worn clothing and his chin length, wavy black hair.  He walked the perimeter of the camp with his dagger in hand, keeping watch and brooding about the events of the last couple of days.  As he turned the corner, the light showed his cobalt blue eyes flash angrily as he recalled Dayl’s betrayal at wanting to leave.  However, the angry look was soon replaced by a smile cold enough to freeze water as he recalled how he dealt with their little problem. 

His feet glided silently through the dry leaves and foliage of the forest as he continued to walk.  Shockingly, as the light hit his face full on it revealed a handsome man in his mid-twenties.  However, his light mustache and goatee, along with a hint of five o’clock shadow made him seem older, but no less handsome.  His mind lingered on the events of the last couple of days.  First there had been that obnoxious gypsy girl who had pretty much spit in their face and then gotten away, then Dayl had turned on them and had to be disposed of, and to make matters worse they had almost been caught and now had to lay low until the man who had taken the fall was hung.

He hated been stuck in camp without the freedom to come and go.  So, he brooded and walked the camp perimeter, pacing like a caged tiger.  He told the men he was keeping watch, but really he was just trying to work off his frustration.  They’d been hidden here for years.  There was no way anyone would find them out here.  No sooner than he had thought that, than someone stepped out of the trees into the shadows in front of him.  Reflexively, he held his dagger up, ready to fight.  The other men saw him shift to a fighting stance and jumped up, hands on their weapons.

“Who’s there?” he growled.  “Step out and show yourself.  You’re pretty stupid to come waltzing into our camp when you’re outnumbered.”

He watched the shape in the shadows shift as the person walked towards the light. The three men gasped as the shadow took on shape, getting curvy until finally the dark-haired gypsy from the other night emerged into the light.  She opened her dark red lips and a husky voice emerged.  “Who said I was waltzing?  I’d say it was more of a sashay.  Besides, I don’t know how to waltz.”  She walked closer to him, her hips swinging with each careful step.  She looked him in the face, blinking her thick lashes over those beautiful dark chocolate eyes.  “Although, I wouldn’t object if you wanted to teach me.”  A coy smile graced her lips, morphing her already beautiful face into a picture of radiance.